Summary:
The middle-school options in Castlewood School District 28-1 consist of one school, Castlewood Middle School - 03, serving grades 6–8. In 2025–2026, the school’s all-grade proficiency was 42% in English language arts (ELA) and 33% in mathematics, compared with 49% and 44% statewide. Both subjects were below the state, but the most important overall concern is the larger mathematics gap: 11 points, compared with 7 points in ELA.
Within the school, eighth-grade ELA stands out as the strongest result: 61% were proficient, 9 points above the state’s 52%. Eighth-grade mathematics was the clearest shortfall, with 25% proficient versus 43% statewide, a gap of 18 points; this makes grade 8 a sharp contrast across subjects rather than uniformly strong or weak. Seventh-grade ELA was also notably below the state, at 32% versus 53%, while eighth-grade science was close to the state level at 39% versus 41%. Because the district list has only one middle school, there are no other schools to identify as higher- or lower-performing peers.
Results improved from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: ELA rose 3 percentage points and mathematics rose 4 points, while the school’s gaps to the state narrowed by 5 points in ELA and 3 points in mathematics. SchoolDigger ranks the school 108th of 151, at the 28th percentile, with 1 star; its reported percentile has declined from 45th in 2023–2024 and 32nd in 2024–2025, even as the latest test scores improved. As context, enrollment is 76, the student-teacher ratio was 18.4:1 in 2024–2025, and 18% of students were free/reduced lunch eligible in 2024–2025. Chronic absenteeism was 12% in 2025–2026, compared with 11% districtwide and 20% statewide. With one school, these figures cannot show how the school compares with similar local schools.
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